David Bailey Wall Art

David Bailey (Born in 1938) is a British photographer known for his fashion, celebrity, and advertising photographs. Bailey came from a working-class background in East London. His career in photography eventually brought him into contact with the high reaches of the British society. He left school at a young age and took up a series of menial jobs before he was enlisted in the Royal Air Force in Malaysia in 1958. A year later and having been interested in photography and art, he apprenticed at the John French Studio. In 1960 British Vogue engaged him as a photographer. He worked here for about 15 years, first on staff then as a freelancer. Bailey also freelanced for other newspapers and magazines. His celebrity portraiture and fashion work, characterized by dramatic lighting effects and stark backgrounds, transformed celebrity photography and British fashion from chic but reserved stylization to something more direct and youthful.

Bailey himself became a celebrity who was known for his affairs with several celebrated women, among them the actress Catherine Deneuve and the model Jean Shrimpton. His work reflects the British cultural trend of the 1960s which involved breaking down rigid class and antiquated barriers by injecting a “punk” or working-class look into both artistic and clothing products. In 1972 he began publishing Ritz, the photography and fashion magazine. He also produced a number of documentary films and books and directed television commercials. Although he continued to photograph celebrities for publications such as The London Times and Harper’s Bazaar throughout the 1970s to ’90s, Bailey began to turn his attention to television commercials.